I've been kicking. ALOT. I got sick of trying to work through my freestyle sprint. From 2008-2011, i've been moaning of why I can't break 24 (24.4-24.1). From 2012 to present, I have only gone 25.3-25.6. I've decided to give it a break and do something different!

My new thing is to kick at least 1 full workout. I swim 3x per week. So on Mondays, I totally kick it. I usually use my Speedo Optimus fins and kick with or without a board (without is faster, so I use these if the interval is really tight). I started out by moving down a lane, going last, and dropping the last 50 if needed. But now I worked my way back up to staying in my own lane and making the swim intervals. It's fun to have my head out of the water and I can look around, but usually I am huffing and puffing and I have to concentrate really hard to kick fast.

My conditioning is really good because of all this self-inflicted kicking. (Probably why I could neg split a 200 back). Just like all the stories you hear about people getting injured, only kicking for months, then coming back with awesomeness because they were forced to kick so much - that's me in a mini-way. The other benefit is the alternate days I actually do most of the whole workout. Even the NEXT lane over marvels and makes comments about how I did the entire set. My arms almost always feel fresh because they were in a perpetual streamline the day before.

Day 2 of the week I try to make sure I get in one of the IM days (Tues or Thurs). Since I am swimming more events, it just makes sense to do more stroke work, plus I really don't want to go down the freestyle path unless absolutely necessary. I also find an unaccustomed desire to swim it all, swim fast, and with a positive can-do attitude. It's a great motivator when you know this is the only practice you are going to swim the 1 hour with your arms!

Day 3 is a mixed bag. I also make sure that I get in short, burst, pure sprinting and/or kicking, no matter what. If the workout isn't sprint, i'll modify the set, or if there is a set in particular I want to do, then I will swim on my own.

I really like the 3 days per week focus. It makes each workout more purposeful and I can do different things! I'll probably stick to this for awhile. Next season, I may have to do more swimming bits, since i'd like to attempt the 200 free and 400 IM. In 2015 it will be a full 20 years since I last swam a real 200 free, and 10 full years since I swam the 400 IM!

I'm still doing P90X3! I am on the final month! It's so much fun that I am going to do another round after I finish this one! But I haven't lost any weight. Probably because I haven't changed my eating habits and I really didn't start it as a weight loss program. I love junk food too much.

Hello everyone! I have been swimming just as much (or as little?) as ever, but just not blogging about it!

Yours truly is going after QUANTITY this year! Feeling so crummy in the 50 free, I figure it's ok to switch gears and swim a schlew of events, hoping to hit some good times and/or top tens along the way! I have 174 TTT, inclusive of the preliminary SCM 2013. So with 26 to go, it's time to ramp up different events! Goal is to reach 200 mark ASAP.

I am going to both the South Central zone meet and infilitrating the AZ state meet, and yahoo, the official meet entry is finally UP!

This weekend I swam some "off events" at the DAMM one day SCY meet. It's hard to get really focused. My older daughter was at a sleepover, so there's that low grade anxiety and "on call" feeling of picking her up right around my last event. My younger daughter was "getting an award" at the Texas Black Film Festival - she entered the Sixth Floor Museum (of JFK shooting fame)'s youth oral history challenge and was a "finalist", where they included part of her interview in the official video!

Anyway, here is how I did:

100 breast 1:14.8
200 back 2:19.1
100 fly 1:04.1

The 200 back was the best. That will stand for a top ten, under 2:20 has always made it safely w/large cushion room. I can scratch that event off my list! The shocker was I went out in a 1:10, and I think it was like, a 1:10.4. So someone do the math, but I had to really boogie on the back end to get under 2:20!

The 100 breast/fly would make top ten - in a moderate year. But I don't know if that will be the case. Yours trulys' analysis is that no one is aging out, but at least 3 faster 44-now-45 girls are aging up, so I am resigned to swimming these 2 events again.

Given I have 2 big meets for top ten chances, I envision myself napping for long periods in my deck chair and lurking in the hot showers at the Woodlands (SC zones). It's going to be my 4 x 50 meet, plus whatever other events I can get for top tens. But I am going to approach this with Fortness - that is, make the 50's really, really count, and not worry too much about the quantity of events. I need to swim really fast to make 50 TTT's, so I don't want to get to piggy about other events!